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Lawmakers hear plans to expand dental workforce with career ladders and new assistant roles

Senate Health and Long Term Care Committee · January 23, 2026
AI-Generated Content: All content on this page was generated by AI to highlight key points from the meeting. For complete details and context, we recommend watching the full video. so we can fix them.

Summary

Experts told the Senate committee that low Medicaid reimbursement and training barriers contribute to dental workforce shortages; witnesses described career ladders, tribal community health aide models and pilot results for oral preventive assistants as ways to expand preventive care and reduce disparities.

The Senate Health and Long Term Care Committee on Jan. 23 held a work session on dental workforce challenges and potential solutions including career ladders, community health‑aide models in tribal settings and a proposed oral preventive assistant (OPA) role.

Allison Mundy, policy director at the Cora Foundation, presented Apple Health utilization data showing that adults on Medicaid receive dental care at much lower rates than children, and that two‑thirds of third graders have experienced tooth decay. Mundy…

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